Our Verdict

The Marmot Tullus Hoody is a very simple and inexpensive down hoody that retains a fair bit of warmth. Retailing for a mere $200, this is one of the least expensive down hoodies in this review. To accomplish this low price point, the Tullus Hoody uses 600-fill power down treated with Marmot's Down Defender hydrophobic coating. While it is reasonably warm and water resistant, it has been stripped of most features, is fairly heavy, and does not come with any means of keeping it compressed in its own pocket or stuff sack. Poor performance in these metrics lead it to be one of the lower scoring jackets in our review, but the truth is that this is a comfortable and solid jacket at a very reasonable cost.

Color Updates
The Tullus Hoody is not available in the powder blue color we tested any longer but is still up for grabs in several other shades, including the basic black shown above.

Compare to Similar Products

Our Analysis and Test Results

Retailing for a very low $200, one would think that the Marmot Tullus Hoody would be a prime candidate for our Best Bang for the Buck Award, and indeed, that is exactly why we wanted to test it in this year's review. While we think that this jacket actually provides good value, combining fairly decent warmth and water resistance, not to mention a comfortable fit, it also lacked the awesome features and compressibility that helped propel the Outdoor Research Transcendent Hoody ahead of it in the overall rankings. That said, while the Transcendent Hoody uses slightly higher quality 650-fill power down, the down isn't hydrophobically treated, and we found it to be not quite as warm or as water resistant as the Tullus Hoody. At the end of the day, both are worthy choices for the person looking to spend as little money on down as possible, despite their relatively low overall scores.

Looking to save even more money and go hoodless?
Like most of the hooded down jackets that we tested for this review, the Tullus Hoody can be purchased hoodless, making it lighter, easier to layer over, and saving a little bit of cash in the process. If this interests you, check out the Marmot Tullus Jacket, which retails for $175.

Performance Comparison

Despite being a warm and comfortable jacket, the Tullus Hoody was among the bottom three in our comparative review. To compare how it stacked up to other competitors, reference the chart above.

The Marmot Tullus Hoody is a no-frills, very affordable down jacket that is pretty warm and plenty comfortable. Keeping us warm while checking in on the ice conditions at the Ouray Ice Park, waiting for opening day.

Warmth

Despite using the lowest fill power down of any jacket in this review — 600 — coupled with sewn-through construction, the Tullus Hoody is surprisingly warm. It reminds one of a heavy down comforter, and what Marmot lost in heat-trapping loft by using lower fill power down they made up for by simply stuffing a whole lot more of it in there. When conducting side-by-side comparison tests, we felt that this jacket was not quite as warm as the Patagonia Down Sweater Hoody, but was no doubt warmer than the Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer Hooded. While it trapped the warmth well to keep us warm around the well-insulated torso, we lamented the total lack of drawcords at the hood or hem and noticed that cold air tended to infiltrate in these areas. 7 out of 10 points.

Despite only using 600-fill power down, the Tullus Hoody is fairly warm. The biggest warmth-related issue for us was the lack of draw cords on the wide fitting hem, making it easy for cold air to infiltrate our warmth envelope.

Water Resistance

This jacket uses Marmot's proprietary Down Defender treatment to give the down clusters a hydrophobic treatment. Marmot claims that this treatment makes the down 150% more water resistant, and also helps it dry out significantly faster if it does get waterlogged. We had a hard time testing the veracity of these claims but found that the DWR coating on the ripstop polyester face fabric worked fairly well.

We initially tested all the jackets DWR coatings by spraying them copiously with a spray bottle to simulate light rain, here testing the Tullus Hoody.

It caused water to bead up and shed off, although small amounts of water were observed being absorbed into the face fabric, more than what we noticed with the Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer Hooded, but less than the StretchDown Hooded. We gave it 8 out of 10 points, making this the best attribute of this jacket.

As you can see here, the DWR coating on the Tullus Hoody is merely adequate. In some places it is causing water to bead and shed well, while at others you can see water seeping into the face fabric. Inside, this jacket uses Marmot's Down Defender treatment.

Fit

While the fit of this jacket was spacious and comfortable, it was not one of the best fitting jackets in the review. We tested a men's size large and found that there was quite a bit of extra space in the torso, more so than the large Arc'teryx Cerium LT Hoody or the large Rab Microlight Alpine jackets that we tested. Considering the fact that there was no way to tighten up the hem with a drawcord, we felt the fit was perhaps a bit too airy. There is no constriction of movement in the shoulders or back area, which is nice, but we also thought the sleeves could use an extra inch of length for optimal coverage when moving the arms about. Due to its bulkier fit, we feel like this one was a better choice for wearing as an outer layer, and didn't really layer over the top of it very often. 7 out of 10 points.

The Tullus hoody fits rather spaciously, especially in the lower torso, where there is plenty of extra room for a beer baby, err, belly. It is very comfortable and is not constricting in the fit in any way.

Compressibility

The Tullus Hoody does not have a means of stuffing itself into one of its own pockets, or into a dedicated stuff sack that is included with purchase. Since it has a lightweight Polyester face fabric, it is not too hard to roll it up into its own hood if keeping it stuffed down small is needed, and it ends up smaller than the Mountain Hardwear StretchDown. We gave it 4 out of 10 points, the same amount as the Columbia Outdry Ex Gold, which also rolled up into about the same size.

The three jackets that did not come with any sort of method to stuff them into a pocket or stuff sack. For this photo we chose to roll them up and stuff them into their own hoods, but they are still the least packable jackets in this review. Top left: Mountain Hardwear StretchDown Hooded. Top right: Marmot Tullus Hoody. Bottom: Columbia Outdry Ex Gold.

Features

This jacket had the fewest features of any in this review. It does not have a drawcord at the hem or around the face, and especially in the case of the hem, could really use it. The elastic lining around the face opening works okay, but is not as good at sealing out the cold as a similar design found on the Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer. It has the standard two zippered handwarmer pockets, as well as an internal zippered pocket, but pretty much no other features than that. As such, it received the lowest score for this metric, 4 out of 10.

The Tullus Hoody does not have very many features to comment on. As you can see here, the hood does not have any sort of adjustable draw cords. It is spaciously large and does an adequate job of sealing off the opening around the face, but not great.

Best Applications

The Tullus Hoody is a great affordable jacket for wearing around town in the winter. It seems to be designed to fit dudes with a larger build better than skinny types. Due to its relative heaviness and lack of ability to compress easily, we wouldn't typically choose to lug it around the backcountry with us, but we thought it worked great for chilly nights while camping.

Due to its very spacious fit and lack of features, we found this jacket to be more enjoyable for hanging at camp in the evenings than for technical pursuits. Here enjoying a Thanksgiving Day fire at Paradise Forks, AZ.

Value

This jacket retails for a mere $200, making it the single most affordable hooded down jacket in our review. Although we chose not to award it as our Best Bang for the Buck, we think it presents awesome value at this price, and recommend checking it out for anyone needing an affordable warmth layer.

Wearing the Tullus Hoody on a hike above the town of Ouray, CO. As one of the most affordable jackets we tested, we think this one presents a good value, and recommend checking it out to those who want the most warmth for the least price.

Conclusion

The Marmot Tullus Hoody is a warm and comfortable jacket that uses lower quality 600-fill power down to keep the cost down, but makes up for it by using a lot of it. Its most notable quality is its low price, making it a solid selection for anyone who wants to spend the least amount of money possible. While we didn't find it to be the most awesome technical layer, we thought it worked great for camping, hiking, and dealing with the cold around town.

Ending the day watching the sunset to the West while wearing the warm and comfortable Tullus Hoody. Due to its simplicity, we thought this was one of the best "camp" jackets in this review.